Cactus V5 Review
Gadget Infinity, the company that brought us the Cactus V4 flash radio triggers created a significantly improved V5 version.
What is it?
One V5 unit can function as a- Flash/Strobe radio trigger transmitter
- Flash/Strobe radio trigger receiver
- Wireless remote trigger for a camera
- Safe-sync hot shoe adapter for high-voltage flashes
- Flash stand
This versatility is quite an improvement over the Cactus V4.
See section “Discussion” below for an elaboration of the above mentioned functionalities.
Highlight Features- Rock solid performance (100m range, automatic temperature adaptation)
- Sync-speed up to 1/1000s
- Compatible with old flashes (flash trigger voltage range of 0—300V)
- Compatible with low-voltage flashes (e.g., Pentax) even in cold weather
- Both female tripod thread and male hot shoe with a locking mechanism
- Female hot shoe still usable in transmitter mode
- No exotic batteries. Rechargeable AAAs work as well
- Low-battery indicator
- Easy channel selection during operation
- Multi-channel mode
In particular in combination, the last two features are a game changer! They open up completely new applications. See bullet “Handling” in section “Discussion” below for an elaboration.
Specifications- Radio frequency: 2.4 GHz
- Channels: 16 (1—5 allow multi-channel operation)
- Max. sync speed: 1/1000s
- Maximum effective distance: 100 m (conservative figure)
- Operating Temperature: -20°C to +50°C
- Flash trigger voltage supported: 0–300V
- Power: 2 x AAA 1.5V batteries/rechargeables
- Dimensions: 82mm x 70mm x 37mm (LxWxH) (including stand)
- Weight: 58g
What’s in the Box?
In addition to a user manual and a "When the Light Dances 2" album (showing sample photos with corresponding strobist lighting diagrams), a V5 Duo box contains the following:
Features and Controls
Discussion
Handling
The ease of handling the V5 is one of its absolute highlights. First, the mode switch (“Tx” = Transmitter, “Rx” = Receiver, “Off”) is at the side and can be accessed while a flash is mounted. One can even change the batteries while the unit is in use (e.g., part of a flash stand rig). The battery compartment slides in and out with a click action similar to an SD card mechanism.
The Cactus V5 review by Brian Hursey features a video demonstrating the battery compartment action.
The best part, however, is that channel selection is not done via DIP switches but through a channel dial at the side that can be accessed while the unit is in use.
This means one can set up multiple flashes in the room and then dynamically choose one flash by dialling in the right channel on the transmitter on camera. This way one can move around with the camera and always choose a flash that will not be seen in the image or that just gives the best light for a particular moment.
Furthermore, for flashes/strobes set to channels 2–5 (marked in blue on the channel selection dial) one can choose to fire them individually or all at once. The latter is achieved simply by setting the transmitter to channel 1. This is very handy for multi-strobe setups to support testing each strobe’s contribution individually first and then simply let them fire all, once one is satisfied with the direction and levels of all individual strobes.
Further “goodies” include the ability for half-pressing the test button. Such a half-press will be confirmed with the LED lighting up in amber rather than in green. Receivers set to the same channel (or on channels 1–5 for multi-channel operation) will just respond with their LED lighting up in amber. This allows verification of channel settings, etc., without actually firing flashes.
The same LED can also light up in red. It does this – blinking slowly – to indicate a low-battery status. A nice touch to receive an advance warning instead of being surprised by dead batteries.
Reliability
The maximum distance between transmitter and receivers is specified to be 100m but this seems to be a very conservative figure. In a trial setup the triggers still worked 150—170m apart.
This was achieved in lowish temperature and with a receiver containing rechargeable Sanyo Eneloops which were close to depletion. Very impressive performance and heads and shoulders above the Cactus V4! It is unlikely that anyone will actually need the triggers to work at such distances but it is good to have this sensitivity safety margin for buildings with thick walls and difficult reception conditions. A tester even found the V5 to have more reach than the PocketWizards. The PocketWizards only worked at 50% of their advertised range and it is unknown why.
Tester Jared Luke tested the V5 at 7fps and they did not miss a beat. Tester Rudy's measurements confirm that the Cactus V5 could support up to 39 fps!
Compared to the Cactus V4, performance was not only improved in terms of reach but also in terms of temperature robustness. The V5 uses an FST (frequency self-tune) mechanism behind the scenes which automatically compensates for frequency drift due to drastic temperature changes. This means the triggers will work in a temperature range of -20ºC to +50ºC and may only require a bit of settling in time until the FST has automatically made the necessary adjustments. Tester Rudy confirmed operation at -10ºC.
Compatibility
The V5 allows the usage of old high trigger-voltage flashes as it supports a trigger voltage range of 0—300V. This means one can purchase almost any flash, old or new, and the V5 will work with it. In contrast, many other triggers exclusively support either a 0—12V or a 12—300V range only.
Unlike the Cactus V4, the V5 does not support flashes with reversed polarity. In my opinion that is a plus rather than a minus since it means that Pentax flashes will not require a modification anymore in order to work in cold temperatures. Flashes with reversed polarity are very rare and not being able to use them is a very small price to pay for supporting modern flashes with a very low flash trigger voltage in low temperature.
Camera remote trigger
The required camera remote trigger cable is camera-specific and an optional accessory. Luckily, for Pentax users the required cable is a standard 3.5mm male to 2.5mm male audio adapter cable, such as this one. With a receiver connected to the camera, the trigger button on a transmitter set to the same channel essentially becomes the shutter release button of the camera. In other words, half-press for AF (also works continuously in AF-C mode, as long as AF is assigned to shutter button half-press), bulb mode, rapid firing, combination with self-timer, etc. are all supported.
If the camera is set to bulb mode, the shutter will be open as long as the user presses the trigger button on the remote transmitter. However, to save the user from keeping the button pressed for extended periods of time, after two seconds, there is a change in operation. The transmitter signals this mode change by turning off the green confirmation light. After that, the user can let go of the button. A further press of the button after an arbitrary time, will close the shutter again. In a way one gets the best of both worlds: a) easy “shutter-closed while button pressed”-mode for the first two seconds and b) convenient “shutter-opens on first press, shutter-closes on second press”-mode for longer exposures. The receiver is rated to keep the camera shutter button pressed for 12 hours non-stop with a fresh set of AAA alkaline batteries.
The automatic mode change may turn out to be problematic when a number of exposures need to be made around the two second mark, sometimes ending before and sometimes ending after it. Practice will show whether this may be a real world problem and/or another mode change timeout amount would be preferable.
On-camera flash
Even when a V5 is used as a transmitter, e.g., on the hot shoe of a camera, the female hot shoe continues to work. This means one can not only trigger flashes remotely but also fire a flash on camera flash, e.g., as a fill flash.
Note that a V5 in Tx (transmitter) mode shields the camera from any high flash trigger voltage. It thus effectively works as a Safe-Sync hot shoe and hence allows using old high trigger voltage flashes on camera. A respective device costs $47.19 and does not offer all the other cool features of the V5!
Mounting Options
The V5 features a female tripod thread and a male hot shoe. The latter has a locking mechanism and hence allows safe operation even in tilted setups, such as on umbrella swivels. The locking mechanism of all my flashes worked fine with the female hot shoe of the V5 and allowed adventurous setups. Brian Hursey’s review contains a video demonstrating the secure fit.
The V5 may also function as a flash stand, if used on the supplied flash stand. One can, of course, also use the flash stand for a flash.
Again, such a flash stand may cost $8.95 on its own. Admittedly, the Nikon AS-19 seems to be sturdier but the V5 flash stand does the job just fine.
Transceiver Design
A V5 unit is a transceiver, i.e., it can be used as a transmitter or receiver, depending on user choice. The one disadvantage this entails is that a receiver cannot have a male hot shoe with an integrated female tripod thread (without involving costly solutions). An integrated tripod thread would avoid the potential mounting challenges resulting from this (see “Room for Improvement?” below). However, the transceiver design also has advantages:- the manufacturer only needs to design, produce and stock one device. The respective cost savings translate into a more competitive price for the user.
- if a transmitter breaks, one can continue shooting by turning a receiver into a replacement transmitter.
- one can reassign receiver/transmitter roles depending on current needs, e.g., if multiple photographers participate in a shoot.
- A superfluous transmitter can be used as a camera trigger, etc.
Note that a V5 Duo box only contains one set of connection cables (see above “What’s in the box?”). This means that buying two receivers at once in a V5 Duo box only fully works if one a) can fire sufficiently many flashes by using the V5 female hot shoes, or b) purchases extra connection cables as an accessory.
Compared To
Cactus V4
The Cactus V4 remains a very attractive choice because of its low price, compatibility with old flashes (0—300V voltage trigger range) and the fact that the receivers accept AAA batteries. The transmitter uses a special L1028 12V battery which lasts for a year though.
Although the V5 loses the ability to support flashes with reversed polarity, as mentioned above this is more than made up for by the fact that Pentax flashes now always work without requiring a modification anymore.
My main niggle with the V4 was the fact that if one forgot to turn the receiver on, there was no way to do it after a flash had been mounted on the hot shoe. The V5 solves that problem by locating the on/off (mode selector) switch at the side.
Even though I never needed more than the ~15m range the V4 have given me, the 100m range of the V5 instil a lot more confidence regarding reliability and I am sure the V5 will be used in many professional settings.
Unfortunately, the V5 are a bit more fuzzy about a minimal distance between transmitter and receiver than the V4 were. This may only be a problem in cases when one could use a flash cable anyhow, but why be forced to buy a flash cable if radio triggers could continue to work?
Luckily, by setting the V5 to channel 16, I got them to work in close proximity to each other, such as triggering a flash on a flash bracket –
– or in macro situations.
The featured bottle is tiny and the flash is on the left hand side, extremely close to the camera.
The V5 are considerable bigger than the V4.
In use this is not a problem at all but it means that the V5 take up considerable more space in a camera bag. On the flip side, the V5 have no protruding antenna thus eliminating any related accidents involving camera straps, etc. Note that the V5 are still smaller than PocketWizards Plus II (approximately 8cm * 6cm * 3.5cm compared to 3.6cm * 5.4cm * 10.2 cm).
Yongnuo RF-602
The Yongnuo RF-602 also features long range operation and can function as a camera trigger but it does not reach 1/180 sync speed on Pentax cameras without tricks/modifications. Its maximum trigger voltage of 12V prohibits the use of older high trigger voltage flashes. A major disadvantage compared to the V5 is the inability to change the channel on the fly. I find the dynamic flash selection ability of the V5 to be one of its main attractive features.
Yongnuo RF-603
The upcoming Yongnuo RF-603 features a TTL pass-through functionality (for on-camera flashes only) but has been heavily criticised for having no locking mechanism on the male hot shoe. It does not feature a female tripod thread. Again, dynamic flash selection through a handy channel dial is not supported. As the RF-602, it is a camera-specific trigger, which I consider to be a disadvantage.
Flash Wave
In the past, when budget triggers had reliability problems, the Flashwaves where a good choice for those who needed the reliability and were prepared to spend considerably more money. Nowadays, other triggers have caught up. I don't think we'll see any complaints about reliability with the Cactus V5. I find the Flash Wave III a bit pricey for what they offer:- US $129.95 compared to the US $59.95 for the Cactus V5 Duo.
- Advertised range more than twice the advertised range of the Cactus V5.
- remote camera trigger functionality only releases shutter but cannot AF (based on an older version. I do not know about the latest FW III version.)
- Transmitter uses special CR2450, 23A battery.
- Does not mount on a female hot shoe.
- Channel selection via tiny DIP switches.
Room for Improvement?
The V5 does not support passing TTL information between camera and flashes. It does not even provide a TTL pass-through feature for on-camera flashes. However, given the choice between on-camera TTL pass-through and the Safe-Sync functionality of the V5, I would choose the latter any day. Supporting both at the same time might be difficult. A TTL pass-through would make the triggers camera-specific which I regard as a disadvantage. In any event, just as real programmers don’t eat quiche, real strobists don’t use TTL. :) Seriously, I find manual control of flashes gives me the best and most consistent results. A remote flash power control feature would be quite something but I do not think TTL-support for on-camera flash only is an essential feature and/or worth paying the money for. If, for whatever reason, one needs a TTL pass-through on cameras with a sync port one can put the flash on the camera hot shoe and have the transmitter be triggered through the sync port. The one advantage I can think of a TTL pass-through has, is that it would allow usage of an AF assist light of the flash. Other features that are enabled by dedicated hot-shoes, e.g., rear curtain shutter, would only make real sense if the receiver supported TTL as well.
Cactus V4 owners may be sad to hear that the two trigger systems are not compatible with each other, i.e., V4 receivers will not listen to V5 transmitters and vice versa. Maintaining the compatibility would have been nice but is technically impossible with a switch from the 433MHz to the better 2.4GHz system. However, one can use both V5 and V4 transmitters in tandem (e.g., V4 transmitter on top of a V5 transmitter) in case one wants/needs to reuse existing V4 receivers.
The above image appears in Karel Donk's V5 review.
The multi-channel functionality is great but it could have easily been made even better by designating a certain receiver channel (e.g., channel 1) to always fire if the transmitter is set to any of the “blue” channels 1–5. This would have supported the use of a “common light” group of flashes that is constantly involved in all scenarios while one selectively adds different accent/key lights on channels 2–5. Maybe we will see such more elaborate uses of multi-channel functionality in future products.
A further “Interlink”/“Relay” mode would have been nice. In such a mode, a transceiver can be used to trigger a camera and a remote trigger for flashes, e.g., by automatically switching to transmitter mode one channel higher up after having fired the camera. This way one would need one V5 unit less to remote control a camera that fires remote flashes.
Some users may wish for an automatic power-off feature, which is absent from the V5. In my experience, however, such auto-features always get in the way when you least need it to happen. It is easy enough to develop a routine of turning off devices after usage and I much prefer the occasional depleted rechargeable set of batteries over misfires because the receivers powered themselves off.
The V5 have a higher power consumption than the V4. This is to be expected because they are a much more complex unit with a lot more features. The transmitter draws 2mA and the receiver 22mA when sitting idle (measurements courtesy by Rudy).
The size of the V5 male hot shoe locking mechanism makes operating it easier but in combination with the different vertical placement of the female tripod thread it can create a mounting challenge on some tripods, quick-release plates or spigots.
One might argue that removing the height difference between tripod thread and male hot shoe could fix the problem is visualised above but this would prevent the V5 to be mounted on cameras with a bulging built-in flash housing (such as the Olympus E-5). One can address the problem by using an additional flash stand, such as the Gissin AS-21, with an integrated tripod thread.
There will be some tension applied to a V5 unit mounted on a spigot and heavy equipment on the female hot shoe since the hot shoe is not aligned with the female tripod thread. However, the unit seems sturdy enough to survive such stress without harm.
Ideally, there would be a mode switch “Tx/Rx” separate from an “on/off” switch. This would allow a) leaving a unit in a dedicated mode, just turning it on and off, and b) switching the unit off in darkness and/or without paying attention. The current mode switch demands a bit of attention when switching the unit off because the “off” position is in the middle and cannot be set by simply pushing the switch to a stop.
Summary
The Cactus V5 is a significant improvement over the Cactus V4 which were already very attractive triggers.
Pros:- Excellent handling (easy access to on/off switch and batteries)
- Dynamic selection of flashes during a shoot
- Single or group selection of flashes
- Safe on-camera flash usage while triggering other flashes
- Works as a wireless camera trigger
- No more exotic batteries, even rechargeable AAAs work
- Low-battery indicator
- High compatibility (0—300V trigger voltage and Pentax compatibility)
- Hot shoe lock and female tripod thread
- Great range and cold weather performance
- High maximum sync-speed
- 2.4GHz operational frequency does not interfere with radio emission of some flashes (e.g. the Canon EX series).
- Flash stand included
Cons:- Tripod thread location may create mounting challenges
- A bit large in the bag
- Minimum distance between transmitter and receiver could be lower
(has not been a problem in practice, though)
- Incompatible to Cactus V4
- Higher power-consumption compared to Cactus V4
- No on-camera TTL pass-through for the transmitter
In closing, I can wholeheartedly recommend the Cactus V5. There are many more “pros” than “cons”. I especially like the ability to change the transmitter channel and thus the flashes addressed while moving around with the camera.
The few “cons” are the result of necessary compromises and completely addressing them (if possible at all) would no doubt make it tough to sell the V5 Duo for US $59.95. That's a bit more than the US$ 39.95 for a Cactus V4 transmitter/receiver pair (the Cactus V4 will not be phased out). The US $20 seem well justified for the additional features. A single Cactus V5 will be US $34.95. The release date is January 24, 2011 (PST).
The V5 will be the right choice for those who appreciate the V4 features but need/want the extra flexibility, increased range, improved reliability, extended compatibility, excellent handling, and new application scenarios provided by the V5.
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